Udaan
Leadership History
2 leaders · 2016 to present
Vaibhav Gupta is the CEO of Udaan, in the role since 2016.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vaibhav Gupta | Co-founder & CEO | 2016 | Present | 10 |
| Sujeet Kumar | Co-Founder | 2016 | Present | 10 |
Udaan (Hiveloop Technology Private Limited) is the digital architect of modern India's wholesale economy. Founded in 2016 in Bengaluru by three of the most revered technology executives from Flipkart's golden era, former Chief Technology Officer Amod Malviya, former President of Operations Sujeet Kumar, and former Senior VP of Business Vaibhav Gupta, Udaan was engineered to solve a very large structural inefficiency in the Indian economy. For decades, India's retail consumption had been anchored not by giant supermarkets, but by 15 million independent, family-owned corner shops known as 'kiranas'. Yet these shopkeepers faced an agonizing wholesale ordeal: having to close their shops once a week, travel hours to crowded wholesale mandi markets, haggle with entrenched middlemen, pay inflated prices in cash, and arrange their own transport. Udaan transformed this broken trade architecture by building a powerful B2B digital marketplace. With a few taps on a smartphone, a kirana shopkeeper in a remote village can order flour, biscuits, smartphones, or jeans directly from national manufacturers, receive doorstep delivery in 24 to 48 hours, and access flexible working capital credit. Achieving unicorn status in an unprecedented 26 months, Udaan once served retailers across roughly 80 cities before refocusing on about 16 core cities by 2026, betting that the future of Indian retail lies in empowering, rather than displacing, the neighborhood shopkeeper. The company is headquartered in Bangalore, India.
Co-founder & CEO
2016 – Present
10 years (current)
Shifted Udaan from a broad marketplace to a hyperlocal grocery model, cut cities from about 80 to 16, acquired ShopKirana in 2025 and led the 2026 refinancing.
IIT Delhi graduate and former Flipkart senior executive; co-founded Udaan in 2016 and became CEO in 2021.
Co-Founder
2016 – Present
10 years (current)
Kumar orchestrated the highly aggressive, massive expansion of Udaan's proprietary logistics arm, forcing the company to build massive physical warehouses rather than just operating as a lightweight software marketplace.
As Co-Founder, he acts as the absolute operational backbone of the company, fiercely managing the brutal realities of moving millions of tons of physical inventory across India.
Udaan operates on thin grocery margins, has posted heavy losses every year (~$122 million (₹1,055 crore) in FY25), and its revenue has roughly halved since FY22 as it exited categories and cities. In mid-2026 its Singapore parent defaulted on $170 million of convertible notes and faced insolvency proceedings before a refinancing was agreed. It also competes with Reliance's JioMart and Metro, Jumbotail, and FMCG companies' own retailer apps.
From 2016 to 2021, Udaan was governed by a collective leadership triumvirate consisting of co-founders Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta. In September 2021, Vaibhav Gupta was formally appointed as the sole Chief Executive Officer.
To establish unified decision-making accountability, prepare for public market corporate governance standards, and streamline operational execution ahead of an intended IPO, the board unanimously selected Vaibhav Gupta as CEO.
Vaibhav Gupta graduated with an engineering degree from IIT Delhi and earned an MBA from the University of Virginia (Darden). He worked at McKinsey & Company before spending five years at Flipkart as Senior Vice President of Business Finance and Analytics.
Both Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar stepped back from day-to-day operational management to serve as non-executive board directors, providing long-term strategic guidance, mentoring founders, and supporting board governance.
Gupta led the bold decision to exit low-margin non-essential categories, curtailed operations from 80 cities to 16 high-density clusters, reduced monthly cash burn by 70%, acquired ShopKirana, and completed the 2026 debt recapitalization.
Gupta engaged directly with institutional creditors and anchor venture investors, orchestrating a $160 million debt-to-equity and refinancing package backed by BlackRock's credit platform that settled all creditor disputes.
Gupta brought in seasoned corporate executives from Amazon, Unilever, and Flipkart to lead supply chain operations, finance, and category merchandising, instilling rigorous corporate governance and KPI tracking.
The Board includes representatives from Lightspeed Venture Partners (such as Bejul Somaia), M&G Prudential, and independent corporate advisors overseeing audit, risk, and compliance committees.
Gupta is executing the legal "reverse flip" to redomicile Udaan from Singapore back to India, resolving legacy convertible debt instruments, and targeting operational EBITDA breakeven by mid-2027 to meet SEBI IPO listing criteria.
Gupta restructured employee stock option plans (ESOPs) to align staff incentives with long-term profitability, shifting company culture from vanity GMV chasing to strict unit economics and customer service.
Management enforces strict return-on-capital hurdles on every warehouse and delivery route, refusing to subsidize freight or deploy capital unless individual order cohorts demonstrate positive contribution margins.
To establish Udaan as a profitable, publicly listed Indian wholesale institution that permanently digitizes supply chains for millions of neighborhood store owners across the nation.
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